Sunday, February 28, 2010

So much for that handy-dandy appliance. The second time I went to use it... as soon as I pointed the business end of it at the floor, the entire bottle of cleaning fluid leaked out in a steady stream.

It's a good thing I still own a mop. You know, a mop. The thing you dunk into a bucket of some kind of liquid and wring out.

An entire bottle of Swiffer fluid, plus an old-fashioned mop, will indeed clean the kitchen floor.

But the now-empty bottle will NOT disengage from the appliance. It laughs at my puny efforts when I press the release button and try to pull off the bottle. We'll see how it feels when I take an X-Acto knife to it....

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

What happened to good sportsmanship? Am I really such an old fogey that I see something wrong with all this grumbling and sour grapes?

Last night, it was the Russian ice dancers who whined that the Canadian gold medal winners didn't really "dance" on the ice, they just skated, and therefore did not deserve the gold medal in ice dance. (I am assuming that they believed that they, the Russians, DID deserve it. I did not see where they mentioned the American silver medalists, probably conveniently forgetting that one more pair stood between them and the gold.)

Last week, it was another Russian, men's silver medalist Evgeni Plushenko, who grumbled that American Evan Lysacek should not have won gold because he does not have a quadruple jump, and therefore somehow is not a proper skater.

Umm... Scott Hamilton (who won gold in 1984) did not have a quad either.... Gosh darn. All these years he's been entertaining us, and he's been an improper skater all this time. Dang.

By contrast, American fourth-place ice dancers Tanith and Ben congratulated the medal winners, and if they had disagreement with the judges' decision, they did NOT display it in public. And this is how it should be.

A little late to the party here... but it's a wonder her friends didn't totally crash the internet yesterday, looking for her. You see, she works for the IRS in ... Austin, Texas.

However... she works in a building about 15 miles away from the the one where the latest Darwin Award contender met his demise yesterday. Naturally, she's a bit shook up, exhausted, and VERY glad today is Friday, but it could have been So. Much. Worse.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

SILICON VALLEY – A new social network is about to alter the playing field of the social media world, and it’s called PhoneBook.

According to its creators, who invented the network in their dorm room at Berkeley, PhoneBook is the game-changer that will leave Facebook, Twitter and even the much anticipated Google Buzz in a cloud of dust.

“With PhoneBook, you have a book that has a list of all your friends in the city, plus everyone else who lives there,” says Danny Fruber, one of PhoneBook’s creators.

“When you want to chat with a friend, you look them up in PhoneBook, and find their unique PhoneBook number,” Fruber explains. “Then you enter that number into your phone and it connects you directly to them.”

Another breakout utility of PhoneBook allows the user to arrange face-to-face meetings with his or her friends at restaurants, bars, and other “places,” as Fruber calls them.

“You will be sitting right across from your friend and seeing them in 3-D,” he said. “It’s like Skype, only without the headset.”

PhoneBook will enable friends to play many games as well, such as charades, cards, and a game Fruber believes will be a breakout: Farm.

“In Farm, you have an actual farm where you raise real crops and livestock,” he says. “It’s hard work, but it’s more fun than Mafia, where you actually get killed.”

Kind of reminds me of the thing that was going around a few years go about a guaranteed piracy-proof method of music distribution. I can't find it now, but it involved a picture of an old-fashioned vinyl record album, and some text about how the youngsters could not figure out what to do with it.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

About ten seconds after this screen capture was taken, Big Mama came along and knocked the red ball right out of his lil' paws with her big snout, and now it looks like he's got one of his back feet stuck in one of the holes.

Sometimes, these balls with holes in them come with treats inside. Don't know if this is one of those occasions.